Bloody Albatross
30th June 2009
Bloody Albatross
My story, “Bloody Albatross” appears in the anthology Warrior Wisewoman 2. This is another story in my Naked Moon series. If you had to flee Mother Earth with only what you could carry, what would you take? Netty Washington makes an unexpected decision. I’m excited to be a part of this project, because it’s solid SF, with a deep focus on the human. Now available!
This story was something of an afterthought while working on the main narrative of NAKED MOON. It’s an independent plot, but does add another dimension to Netty. While she is very competent, I wanted her to bring some skeletons to her closet on the Moon. As things become more dire in later chapters, her past will influence her decisions. Netty is very deliberate, and makes good decisions, but not always when personal issues are involved. In the close quarters of a survival situation, anything can become personal…
Other published stories in this series are “Misquoting the Moon”, and “Misquoting the Star”. Both appeared in Analog magazine. (Much info on these stories on the Fiction page of my web site.) All of these stand alone, but will be integrated with other stories in the same setting to form the novel NAKED MOON.
Feedback most welcome!
Cavernauts
02nd March 2009
”Cavernauts” - novelette - Analog Science Fiction and Fact (March 2009, lead story. Illustration by the incomparable Vincent Di Fate.)
What kind of people thrive by exploring dangerous asteroids and moons? What kind of teamwork is required to come home alive? What happens when that teamwork begins to crumble?
Reviews
“Gripping adventure… enjoyable… smoothly written” - The Fix
“A rousing adventure tale… RECOMMENDED” - IROSF
“An exciting tale … inventive … a good finish” - SF Revu
Story Behind the Story
For a lot of technical discussions about Cavernauts, see the “Science Behind the Story” article on the Analog web site. It’s completely digestable by the layman, but links to a few technical tidbits for the adventurous. Not all of the article is technical - there is a bit of thematic commentary - so please have a look, and let me know what you think.
CAVERNAUTS is being translated for the Russian SF magazine ESLI.
Inspiration
This idea began with the poetic imagery that Rick waxes near the end of the story. I had recently been cave diving in Ginnie Springs, Florida, and wrote my impressions. When I shared this with fellow divers, several people who did not know me commented that “that guy must be a new father.” That took me aback because the theme of birth seemed a natural fit to this sort of diving. But they were right - I was a new father (though not for the first time.) When I wrote Cavernauts, I made Rick a new father to put his poetic musings into that context. I hope it makes more sense this way. Other than this, there is nothing autobiographical in Cavernauts. I’d like to thank my instructor, Bill “Bird” Oestreich, of Bird’s Underwater, and my fellow cave divers who each experience profound but differing epiphanies in the dark watery cracks of Florida’s labyrinthine springs.
Theme
This is an experiment; I normally believe that a story should speak for itself, and that the reader makes contributions to a story that the author can not know. But here are a few thoughts.
While composing this story, I was asking the simple question, “what kind of people would my cavernauts be?” I took cues from real adventurers and extreme sports enthusiasts, with a good dose of test pilot or astronaut thrown in. To survive, you have to be sound, rational, well-oiled, and risk-adverse. At the same time, you have to buck all those qualities to get off the ground as a space explorer. There’s a balance, but not a delicate one, I don’t think. For the story, I had to provide reasons for the cavernauts to lose their stability.
I think of the team of cavernauts as the real protagonist of the story, not Rick, or any individual. Hence the story title. The team has done wonders together in the past, but when one of them is missing, the glue that held them together begins to dissolve. Tensions that were checked begin to unwind. In dangerous environments, this is a recipe for disaster. When we prepare for complex, dangerous situations, it is comforting to note how proper training so often leads to success. It is not always that way. As noted in the story, things can quickly fall apart for a number of reasons, and people may not even realize it until it’s too late.
The idea of a team as a distinct character parallels the story’s subtext about humanity’s transition from an existence centered about the physical body to a more ephemeral social structure. We see that all around us today. By the time we have the capability to mine Callisto, we may well be far more evolved than my story describes, but I wanted to illustrate the point with sharper boundaries than are likely to be seen.
Of course, it is Rick’s insistence on preserving the cavernaut team that puts it in great jeopardy near the end. Also, his devotion to the physical body becomes almost self-defeating. Rick does the right things for the right reasons, yet he is probably wrong.
The sculpt-able diamond is something of an allegory for the cavernaut team, since it is “rock-solid” but in other ways fragile. Colleen, the sculptor, was the one who held the team together; without her, the members fractured along natural fault lines. Perhaps I should have made this more explicit.
Finally, it is no coincidence that the cavern chambers are named mostly after body parts, in contrast to the ethereal world of WyrdNet. The feature called “Devil’s Throat” is an homage to the Alfred Hitchcock Three Investigator juvenile mysteries I loved as a kid. In one book (The Mystery of the Green Ghost, by Robert Arthur) the portly hero, Jupiter Jones, got wedged in a tight spot in an abandoned mine.
WyrdNet
Click the link for the WyrdNet page at the top, and the different link for WyrdNet under “Categories” to the upper left for a lot of information about WyrdNet. There’s more in the Science Behind the Story article, and more fiction in the works.
Men and the Mirror
The homage to Ross Rocklynne’s “Men and the Mirror” and related stories was intended as a bit of a red herring in the plot. I wrote the story during the summer of 2006, long before I read Geoff Landis’s award-winning update of Rocklynne’s story in a 2008 issue of Analog. I find our differing approaches interesting.
Armchair Scientist
02nd February 2009
“Armchair Scientist ” - short short - Analog Science Fiction and Fact (April 2009)
If you have ever had a paper rejected by an alternative science journal, this might explain why. If you are not such an armchair scientist, you will recognize a modicum of satire in this “story”.
Analog April 2009
Comments
“A funny satire on pseudo-science” - Sam Tomaino, SFRevu
“It’s a rejection letter, the first epistolary story I’ve seen done in that format. Great fun.” - Wendy S. Delmater, Mistress of Singularities
“Really made me grin. Good stuff.” - Tom Ligon, author
Story Behind the Story
Analog readers have commented that this story feels like it could apply to on-line trolls or politicos. Quite perceptive, since that’s not far from how this little ditty started. I was on the Analog forum, and our resident frustrated scientist, TE, was making some funny jokes. This spawned the idea of an “Armchair Scientist” magazine, and I started to post a funny reply that was similar to some points in my story. Just before posting, I thought, hey, this isn’t bad. I canceled the post, wrote the story, and sold it!
The editors confessed to actually laughing out loud. While reading the galley, I thought to add a final punchline - something like a salutation to end the supposed rejection letter, and to tie up the spirit of the supposed magazine. What I came up with was, “Excelsior!” However, this ending did not make go over well, so I left it off. I was thinking of the movie Network, and the famous “I’m mad as hell” line, but others thought of Marvel Comics, so that was that.
For such a short work, I really honed it a lot. There is a vague symmetry to the 10 points, and a few of them contradict each other. One line I might have punched up in retrospect is “we would love [instead of like] to send you a personal rejection” because the intention is good but it comes across very differently. Also, I wrote something like “we are fairly certain that your article fits one of the following categories.” The intention was that “fairly” was actually 97.063 percent, or whatever it was. The scientific approach to article rejections, eh?
Misquoting the Star
23rd December 2008
“Misquoting the Star”
Novelette, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2008
This story is a stand-alone sequel to “Misquoting the Moon” which appeared in the March 2007 issue of Analog. This issue marked the first in the new size format.
The world is destroyed, and refugees on the Moon are planning to return home to start a new civilization. An administrator is intent on avoiding past mistakes - and she has to power to do so. But it’s going to cost her dearly…
Analog, December 2008
Reviews
“Very good. Affecting.” - Sam Tomaino, SFRevu
“This is a story about leadership. Netty Washington is a well-realized character, complete with human flaws–which reflects the story’s theme that humanity would not be human without its flaws. Bartell makes a good case, a human case, for Netty’s decision; yet I must strongly disagree with it… Worthwhile stories are the ones that provoke these arguments, the ones that raise these questions.” – Lois Tilton, IRoSF
“Wonderful work.” - Juliette Wade, author
“Highly enjoyable.” – Analog reader
“Enough for a novel in itself… However, there’s another dimension… But there’s more… holy semolians, there’s more!” - Mark Watson, BestSF
The Story Behind the Story
I wrote “Misquoting the Moon” from a specific inspiration, with no thought of a sequel, even though there was clearly room for one. A kind reviewer indicated a desire to learn what happens next, and I thought, “well, yeah, I guess I would like to know too.”
“While the story comes to a satisfying conclusion, it also raises questions, not of ethics, but rather more practical considerations, which might be interesting for Bartell to explore in a sequel.” - Steven H. Silver, Tangent
The obvious answer would be to cure the disease mentioned in “Misquoting the Moon”. I wasn’t interested in the obvious. An interesting scenario came to me, and I liked the built-in drama of it. So, without planning to, I had to sit down and write what started as “The Elephant’s Wife”, continuing the idea of including an authentic folk story from general area of Namibia.
Since the first story was told from two distinct points of view, I thought to do the sequel the same way, and started it that way. It wasn’t a good idea, for a short story, so after dozens of drafts, I pulled it together into Netty’s POV. The story still has two distinct dilemmas though - Oscar’s just plays out in Netty’s POV.
From my biased perspective, the dramatic stakes in this story were as high, or higher than “Moon”. Readers did not seem to agree, though the story was well-liked. By the time I finished writing this, it was clear that Netty and Oscar had more things to do, and so I wrote or started several more stories, and outlined a novel. The story “Bloody Albatross” will appear in the Warrior Wisewoman 2 anthology this year. A very slightly altered Netty is the heroine there, and the stand-alone story could actually happen either before or after the two “Misquoting” stories. (There was, of course, no credible way to maintain the “Misquoting” motif.)
The novel is called “NAKED MOON”, and if you think the folks have trouble in the first few stories, just wait! Things get a lot worse.
Speaking of worse, one fleeting image in particular seemed to stick with readers of “Misquoting the Star” - the guy who “drove” his truck to the Moon. It could happen, as described. Unfortunately, my desire to depict an identifiable wreck was not scientifically realistic. The impact speed would be around 1000 mph (though I may be remembering the calculation wrong) so there wouldn’t be much left. One would also assume that reaching escape velocity from Earth would result in somewhat more damage than a fender bender as well.
Thanks to Pete Bullock for reading and commenting on the manuscript, and to Stan Schmidt, who held me to a reasonable scientific standard. Also to Mr. Silver for instigating this sequel.
Test Signals
01st May 2008
ELSI Cover
Analog May 2008
“Test Signals”, lead novella, Analog Science Fiction Science Fact, May 2008.
A deformed researcher is drawn into a DNA piracy scheme. Should he donate his genes to benefit mankind, or battle a corporate monster for ownership of them? “Engaging and disturbingly thought-provoking”. The Russian translation, ПРОВЕРОЧНЫЙ СИГНАЛ, is available in ELSI, with my name, in Cyrillic, on the cover.
Reviews
“Very good.” - SFRevu
“My favorite story in the issue… a mystery involving bioengineering and posthuman mutants…. A great story overall.” - SF Gospel
“The subject matter, the ethics of genetic exploitation, is a serious one and potentially quite interesting.” - IRoSF
“Bartell is a good writer, and the complexity of the idea is helped by the expert way in which he organizes his subject matter. He also shows a real talent for characters and, toward the end of the story, a better than average grasp of human nature.” - The Fix
“Interesting… I thought the setup for this story about the ownership of genetic characteristics (even arguable flaws, like the protagonist’s extra arms) very intriguing. ” - Richard R. Horton
“I really enjoyed it… The story fully engaged me and left me wanting more. So congratulations on a job really well done!” - Analog Reader
“Very good… I liked the finale very much - it resonated with my soul… I respect people capable of a constructive approach to a problem.” - ELSI Reader (translated)
“It is a wonderful mix of computer and genetic affairs.” - ELSI Reader (translated)
“Very good and solid story.” - ELSI Reader (translated)
ELSI Art
Story Behind the Story
The first version of this story was a little piece of flash fiction, intended as something like a Probability Zero story for Analog. It was essentially just the first page of the final story. By the time it was rejected, I realized that it was rightly part of something bigger. Dr. Schmidt agreed, and generously shared some research notes with me. (I think his wife Joyce had them - thanks to both.) While developing the story, I felt an urge to write it as a sort of Philip K. Dickian intrigue, but the feeling didn’t hold up as I progressed. Several readers on the Analog Readers Forum commented that the story might make a good novel, and I have duly noted that. In fact, I’ve put some notes on file for some developments (e.g. Good Fortune, “Malignance Aeterna”, Rasta Nova, etc.) should I ever flesh this out.
In addition, one reviewer thought that the story’s themes warranted a more serious treatment. Good call. The issues are real and are being debated today, in small circles. (The references in the story are real cases.) The concensus on this story is that it was a strong one for Analog in 2008, but that it was flawed. Too many subplots, unlikable characters, abrupt ending. I meant the characters to be brusque but sympathetic. Again, something to fix if I revisit this.
Misquoting the Moon
01st March 2007
“Misquoting the Moon” - short story, Analog Science Fiction Science Fact, March 2007. An asteroid will destroy life on Earth - except a lucky few. Who deserves to live? A “decidedly different” Analog story…
Analog March 2007
Reviews:
“The setting, the foreboding, and the desperation and dilemmas that Hendrik faces are compelling… the characters’ actions mattered” - The Fix
“A neat little tale about how to save a little of a world that is about to be destroyed.” - SFRevu
“While the story comes to a satisfying conclusion, it also raises questions, not of ethics, but rather more practical considerations, which might be interesting for Bartell to explore in a sequel.” - Tangent
Very moving.”- Analog reader“Misquoting the Moon had the greatest emotional impact that I can ever remember from a short story in any genre.” - Analog reader
“I loved it.” - Analog reader
Story Behind the Story
The suggestion for a sequel intrigued me. I had not intended a sequel, although the questions dangling at the end were clear enough. I quickly came up with a follow-on idea, and wrote the sequel, “Misquoting the Star”, which appears in the December 2008 issue of Analog. See the post for that story for more. And look for more stories in the series, a novel in-progress called Naked Moon.
Since living in Africa, I’ve been trying to write a big novel. I have a couple in progress, but what seems to happen is that I write SF or fantasy instead, occasionally weaving in some part of the continent. In November of 2005, I started a draft entitled “Starfish and Headstand Moon”, and it developed from there. I have collected and studied African myths, proverbs, and superstitions, and wanted to have a character draw on the past to deal with the future. The story about the hare misquoting the Moon is a real fable. The character of Hendrik was drawn from some real people I met in the place described. The hunter, Ted Hathaway, was intended as a sort of Teddy Roosevelt era man’s man, like the elephants he kills, a vanishing breed himself, in our near future. I suspect he will do a few more disturbing things before possibly redeeming himself.
Art by Nicholas Jainschigg
Places of Color
01st May 2006
Jigsaw Nation
“Places of Color” - short story, Jigsaw Nation, (anthology published May 2006)
Once a Union, the Blue States have finally seceded from the Red, rather like the waxing and waning of Delicia and James’ love affair…
Review
“A relationship story…. at this point in the anthology, this type of story provides a nice break from such heavy-handed issues of slavery and war.” - SF Readers
Story Behind the Story
My co-author for three stories co-edited this book, and put the word out what they were looking for. In the process of writing the story, I came up with the title for the anthology. I don’t think the artist knew it, but I offered the same rough idea for the cover art.
Pieces of Pi
01st April 2006
“Pieces of Pi” - short story, Gods and Monsters (anthology published April 2006).
A socially inept man finds “proof” of God’s existence in the proportions of a more perfect circle.
Gods and Monsters
“I enjoyed it. I’ve been handing it around to all my friends to read. Well done.” - Editor, Reflection’s Edge
“There are some entertaining (though, of course, nonsensical) mathematical musings along the way as he ponders how the new value of π would change geometry and trig functions.” - Alex Kasman, Mathematical Fiction
Story Behind the Story
The premise of this story was something I recalled from my younger years. Only recently did the specific root of the idea reveal itself. At a high school reunion, I was reminded by old friends of an argument in calculus class. The teacher pointed out how, by a particular and literal interpretation of the Bible, God decreed that the value of pi must equal the integer 3. Which is wrong, of course.
I wrote a story back then called “Poppycork”, which I sent to the spanking new Asimov’s SF magazine. The editor rejected it with a kind note that it might make a good entry in Analog as a Probability Zero (PZ) story. I sent it there, and was rejected. Suffice it to say that my writing was not what it is today, despite a few awards. The story was bad.
But the idea stuck, and once I sold a couple stories, I resurrected it, rewrote it, and resubmitted as a PZ. Twenty-two years later. No dice, which is too bad, as the vindication would have been sweet.
In the rewrite, which is a wholly new story, I created a character who is not only a fundamentalist, but also an excruciatingly introverted person. This aspect came from someone I used to know, and is not exagerrated. (I got an interesting rejection from a British market that found his relationship, as a white-collar worker, with a truck driver to be “refreshing”. I guess in Britain people don’t wax philosophic across class lines.)
I actually did work out the math for the story, as flawed as its foundation may be. Basically, I wondered what the world would look like if pi was exactly 3, or, for that matter, 1. No, I didn’t try to work out all the details, because all I needed to do was to imagine it from the protagonist’s point of view. No point in making a fool out of myself at the same time!
Kamikaze Bugs
01st January 2006
“Kamikaze Bugs” (with E. Sedia), Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Jan/Feb 2006.
Gus helps an old professor with a mysterious pet project. He and Jessie must then to try to undo the damage… The third Gus & Jessie story.
Analog, Jan/Feb 2006
Reviews
“Another charming tale about Gus and Jessie and their adventures in genetic engineering. I hope they give us more of these.” - SFRevu
“This story is about finding solutions, and the assumptions people make when they look for answers to a problem - which may keep them from looking in the right place. Gus and Jessie are engaging characters, and the scientific issues they deal with are intriguing. …ought to reward both new readers and those more familiar with their previous appearances.” - IRoSF
“The story has a leisurely feel to it. The short, seemingly only loosely linked events… actually all flow together nicely in retrospect, just as events aren’t always visibly linked in the real world except in hindsight.” - Tangent
“The relationship between the main characters attracts me more than the bio-tech.” - BestSF
“Good fun. The light humor surrounding Jessie and Gus is a pleasure to read. It’s right on the border of open spoofing, but with enough real science and situations to keep it grounded.” - Analog reader
Prequels: ”Alphabet Angels”, “Smiling Vermin”, (both with Ekaterina Sedia)
Smiling Vermin
01st May 2005
“Smiling Vermin” (with E. Sedia), short story, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2005.
A genetic scientist gives his pet-loving wife an unusual anniversary present, but she’s not the only one enamored of it… The second Gus & Jessie story. Russian translation published in ELSI Magazine, December 2005.
Reviews
“This is a cute tale with a tone as light as a feather… poignant without being cheesy… refreshing and realistic… quite funny.” - Tangent
“Quirky as the previous story.” - BestSF
“A fun sequel…. I hope for more stories about this couple.” - SFRevu
Prequel: “Alphabet Angels” (With Ekaterina Sedia)
Sequel: “Kamikaze Bugs” (With Ekaterina Sedia)
Alphabet Angels
15th March 2005
“Alphabet Angels” (with E. Sedia), Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2005.
Analog - March 2005
For curious Ikarie readers, go to bottom, please.
It’s one thing when genetically altered fish have letters instead of stripes, but another when they start spelling things… The first Gus & Jessie story. Opening line:
“If Annabelle the fat-tailed gecko wasn’t so fond of crickets, I would’ve never received a marriage proposal from a tankful of fish, and a new form of intelligence would have ended up pickled in a specimen jar.”
Awards
♦ Winner of AnLab Reader’s Award for Best Short Story of 2005. Thanks to the readers who voted for us!
♦ Listed on Locus Recommended Reading: 2005.
“A sheer delight.” - Stan Schmidt“An amusing tale of pet shops and emergent behavior…. well told and entertaining.” - Tangent“Off the wall… Quite entertaining.” - BestSF“Lucky homicide… Very much behaving tale… that laugh glorious aloud.” - Finnish web site (on-line translation)“The work which mixed romance and humor. Elocution being pleasant, you could read very funny.” - East Saw Grass Child (on-line translation)“I’ve read a lot worse. I can see why they published it.” - My Dad
An Unanswerable Question
14th October 1995
Empty Vessel - Fall 1995
“An Unanswerable Question” - Zen Koan - The Empty Vessel (Fall 1995)
Q: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
A: None of the above.
Story Behind the Story
This little Zen koan stems from an essay I did around about junior high, called “Critical Explanation”, which made a point about evolution. Many years later, I submitted it to The Empty Vessel, a nation-wide journal on Taoism. The editors printed the “zippy” little story, and asked where I got it. They thought I had either found it in some old book, or that it was, perhaps, given wisdom.
There was a blizzard in 1996, and I was snowed in for a few days. There was a monster project due in a few days. I did make it to work a couple times, but the fan wouldn’t work to defrost the car window, so I had to drive with the windows open. I used a trash bucket to shovel snow. The point being, I was under stress. Despite pulling two all-nighters in a row, I had trouble sleeping. I got story ideas as soon as my head hit the pillow, and also upon waking up. I wrote 33 very short Zen stories during those days. This little book, Eleven Enlightenments of Xiao Xia, is a sort of companion to a fantasy novel I wrote at about the same time.
If there is any interest, I will post “An Unanswerable Question” here, gratis. Heck, it’s shorter than this post.